Dawn (anime)
| Dawn ヒカリ Hikari | |
| [[File:File:HikariDP.png|{{{size}}}]] Art from Diamond/Pearl anime | |
| Age | 10 (as of debut) |
|---|---|
| Gender | Female |
| Eye color | Blue |
| Hair color | Blue |
| Hometown | Twinleaf Town |
| Region | Sinnoh |
| Relatives | Johanna (mother) |
| Trainer class | Coordinator |
| Anime debut | Following a Maiden's Voyage! |
| English voice actor | Emily Jenness |
| Japanese voice actor | Megumi Toyoguchi |
Dawn (Japanese: ヒカリ Hikari) is a ten-year-old girl traveling through Sinnoh with Ash and Brock. Her goal is to become a great Coordinator like her mother, Johanna. Her first Pokémon is a Piplup that she received from Professor Rowan in the first Diamond & Pearl episode. She is voiced by 豊口めぐみ Megumi Toyoguchi in the Japanese version, Emily Jenness in the English dub, by Fernanda Bulara in the Brazilian dub, and by Gaby Ugarte in the Latin American Spanish dub.
Character
Dawn is notable for her confidence, since she is always looking towards the future rather than dwelling on her mistakes. In the Japanese version, she often says, "Daijōbu!" Although not consistently translated in the English dub at first, she began to regularly use "No need to worry!". In a stark contrast to May's inexperience and self-doubt at the start of the Advanced Generation series, Dawn is perhaps overly confident and assured in her own strength. Dawn is one of Ash's friends to get the most character development.
She began her journey with Piplup and knew from the beginning that she wanted to be a Coordinator. After meeting Ash and Brock, she decided to journey with them, as their experience would likely be helpful to her. Like Ash, she is lucky enough to have seen a legendary Pokémon at the start of her journey, the projected soul of Mesprit in Following a Maiden's Voyage!. She lost her first contest in Arrival of a Rival and ended up getting support from her mother who told her to rely on her friends. Eventually, in her second offical contest, Dawn narrowly beat Kenny to gain her first ribbon.
In Dawn's Early Night, when she competed in the Hearthome City Contest, she lost in the Appeal Round, making her the first of the main characters to drop out of a contest by losing the appeal round. In Team Shocker!, she lost the Appeal Round for second time in a row. This was a big turn around in Dawn's character. Previously, she had only occasionally been seen training for contests. After this second blow to her self-esteem, she didn't know what to do and was still very upset throughout Tanks for the Memories!. After this, she began to become more focused and regained her confidence after battling Maylene in Crossing the Battle Line!. Dawn began to practice in earnest and eventually was able to break her losing streak in DP079 and was able to win the Wallace Cup after narrowly defeating May in the final round. Dawn has since maintained her newfound focus and humility.
She has two childhood friends that appeared in the anime, Kenny and Leona, both of which call her sometimes Dee Dee (Japanese: ピカリ Pikari). Dawn has prevented them from telling Ash and Brock about the reason why she has this nickname. She seems to be closer to Leona than to Kenny. Kenny functions as a rival for Dawn alongside Zoey. Zoey also functions as a semi-mentor to Dawn and helped her recover from her second loss. All three are competing for their first time in the regional contests. Leona however, challenges Gyms
Dawn has more concern about her appearance than Ash's other female friends. She will not show herself to Ash or Brock until she feels that her appearance is perfect. That may be a reason why she decides to sleep inside a tent while the others sleep outside. Every time she's going to be on camera, she needs to take a moment to brush her hair before going on. In DP086, she demonstrated an unknown talent for designing, sketching many different dresses for the Hearthome Collection, though she rejected all of them.
She had a bicycle, but like Misty's and May's bikes, Ash's Pikachu destroyed it with its Thunderbolt. However, she did not mention this to Ash until over 30 episodes after it happened. Johanna gave Dawn one of her old ribbons from her days as a coordinator as a gift for luck. She also had a large suitcase full of dresses, but her mother made her leave it at home due to its impracticality. She also has a Contest Pass for the Sinnoh region.
Like May, she has her own ending theme song, titled 君のそばで 〜ヒカリのテーマ〜 By Your Side ~Hikari's Theme~. It is the first ending of the Diamond & Pearl anime. The song is performed by グリン Grin.
Pokémon
This listing is of Dawn's Pokémon as of the most recent Japanese episode:
On hand
 Piplup |
 Buneary |
 Pachirisu |
 →  Aipom → Ambipom |
 Swinub | |
Traded
 Buizel (Traded for Aipom) |
Ribbons
Sinnoh ribbons
Achievements
- Unofficial contest in Borrowing on Bad Faith - Runner-Up
- Sinnoh Double Battle Tournament (Runner-up - with Conway)
- Hearthome Collection - Winner
Trivia
- Out of all of Ash's friends, Dawn is the only one so far to have her debut episode dedicated completely to herself. Unlike other debut episodes, Ash didn't even appear until the last 30 seconds.
- May and Misty were girls who traveled with Ash Ketchum. Both of them have Japanese names including the katakana カ ka and dub names starting with M, so some fans believed Dawn would as well have a dub name starting with M, because she had カ in her name. However, this was revealed to be false when her English name was revealed to be Dawn, which appears to reference Pokémon Diamond as Paul references Pokémon Pearl. "Dawn" may also be a reference to "Hikari," which means "light"--dawn is essentially the day's first light.
- Just like Ash's Pikachu, her Piplup wasn't ready to obey her when they first met. Eventually, they became fast friends.
- She is the only female main character that doesn't have a sibling.
- Unlike Ash's other friends, Dawn has already crossed a lot of boundaries that have previously only been held by Ash.
- She saw a legendary Pokémon prior to meeting Ash.
- She's the first main character to capture an Template:Type2 Pokémon besides Ash.
- Having already captured Buneary, Pachirisu, and Buizel, Dawn has captured more Pokémon in her first 35 episodes that any of the other main characters aside from Ash. This isn't including the Pokémon they all started with.
- Misty captured Horsea and Psyduck before The Legend of Dratini.
- Brock captured Zubat and Vulpix before The Battling Eevee Brothers.
- Tracey captured Scyther before A Sappy Ending (by which point he wasn't even traveling with Ash any longer) and hasn't captured anything since.
- May captured Wurmple before Win, Lose or Drew.
- Comparatively, Ash captured Caterpie, Pidgeotto, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Krabby, Primeape, Muk, and all 30 of his Tauros before the end of The Legend of Dratini.
- She was the first main character other than Ash to battle a member of the Elite Four.
- Dawn is the second Coordinator that is voiced by Megumi Toyoguchi in Japanese, the first being Janet.
- She is one of two of Ash's friends who is not or part of a Gym Leader family. Tracey is probably the other. However, this is only presumed as no information is known about her father or Tracey's family.
- On the Pokémon Learning League website, her clothing has been altered so that her white undershirt has sleeves and she is wearing black stockings or tights.
- Dawn is the first Pokémon Trainer introduced as a novice to not have a Template:Type2 Pokémon be her first evolution, as Ash's first evolving Pokémon was Caterpie, and May's was Wurmple. Dawn's first evolving Pokémon was Aipom.
- She is the only main character aside from Ash to challenge an official Pokémon Gym, and the first of Ash's friends to compete in an official Gym Battle in the main series since Showdown at Pewter City and The Water Flowers of Cerulean City, where Brock battled Ash and Misty battled Ash respectively.
- Counting side-stories, the last time anyone besides Ash or his rivals were shown challenging a Gym Leader would be The Blue Badge of Courage, where Sakura fought Misty.
- Every Pokémon Dawn has captured or received has been in the Ground egg group.
- When Dawn had Buizel, she had two Template:Type2s, while afterwards, with Aipom, then Ambipom, she has two Template:Type2s. These relate to Ash's previous two female traveling partners, as Misty is a Gym Leader who specializes in Water-types, while May's father Norman is a Gym Leader that specializes in Normal-types.
- All of Dawn's Pokémon have used the Heart Seal on their Ball Capsules.
- Dawn's Latin American Spanish dub actress, Gaby Ugarte, has a sister (Xóchitl Ugarte) who voices another female main character of the anime. Ironically, the two characters haven't met yet.
- Discounting Max, Dawn is the only one of Ash's friends who hasn't yet owned a Generation I Pokémon and one of only two who hasn't yet owned a Generation III Pokémon (the other is Tracey).
- Dawn is the second female traveling companion to battle in the third Gym of a region. She battled Maylene, the Veilstone Gym leader herself, while her predecessor, May, battled the Mauville Gym Leader Wattson's assistant, Watt.
- Dawn is, as of the most recent episode, the only main protagonist (besides Max, for obvious reasons) who hasn't owned a Flying-type Pokémon : Ash has Charizard, Noctowl, Swellow, Staravia and Gliscor and had Pidgeot and Butterfree, Misty has Gyarados and had Togetic, Brock has Crobat, Tracey has Scyther and May has Beautifly.
Names
| Language | Name | Origin | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | ヒカリ Hikari | From 光, light. | |
| English | Dawn | May be a reference to Hikari, as dawn is essentially the day's first light. | |
| French | Aurore | Literally means dawn. | |
| German | Lucia | A reference to lux lucid, latin for light. | |
| Italian | Lucinda | From luce, Italian for light. | |
| Spanish | Maya | This may be from a gag that the Spanish dubbers did in switching Dawn's and May's names around. Notice Dawn's Spanish name, Maya, is closer to May, while May's Spanish name is Aura, which translates into "dawn." | |
| Korean | 나빛나 Na Bit-Na | When read as a sentence, it means I shine. | |
| Chinese (Taiwan) | 小光 Xiǎo Guāng | From 光 hikari, light. Literally "small light". |
Related articles
External links
- Daijoubu!, the fanlisting for Dawn
- Hikari's Profile on Pokeani (Japanese)
- Hikari's Pokémon on Pokeani (Japanese)
On Bulbagarden forums
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